On the morning of 8 June 1956, in Merano, Charly Gaul was twenty-fourth at the Giro d’Italia, 16-17 minutes behind Pasquale Fornara’s pink jersey. By the evening he was first, 3′27″ ahead of Fiorenzo Magni. In between lay 242 km, four passes, Monte Bondone and the snow.
Four passes, then the Bondone
It was the third-to-last stage of the Giro, and in Merano they set off in rain and an icy wind. The route crossed the Passo di Costalunga, the Rolle, the Gobbera and the gravel of the Brocon before the final climb to Monte Bondone, above Trento, with the finish at 1,272-1,300 metres. The Bondone was one of three new Dolomite climbs in that Giro; today the race’s website measures it from Trento at 17.3 km and an average of 8.2%, up to 1,650 metres at Vason.
| Climb | Altitude (m) |
|---|---|
| Passo di Costalunga | 1,745-1,753 |
| Passo Rolle | 1,970-1,989 |
| Passo Gobbera | 988 |
| Passo del Brocon, gravel | 1,616 |
| Monte Bondone, finish | 1,272-1,300 |
Gaul, from Luxembourg, 23 years old, was 24th01 and had nothing to defend. He attacked from the first climbs. On the Bondone the rain turned to snow, and at the finish the thermometer read 4 degrees below zero.
He won in 9h07′28″, at an average of about 26.5 km/h, 7′44″02 ahead of Alessandro Fantini and 12′15″ ahead of Magni. He arrived half frozen: they lifted him off the bike, wrapped him in blankets and put him in a hot bath. The Giro’s website says he fainted at the finish and spent an hour in the hot water. In one day he had made up the 16-17 minutes he trailed Fornara by and passed twenty-three riders.
Those left on the road
Fornara abandoned: the Giro’s website says it was his directeur sportif who made him get off, while he was still in pink. Half the bunch went with him: 41-4303 riders reached the finish, out of 86-89 who started in Merano.
Magni, third, was riding with a collarbone broken in a crash a few days earlier, on the descent from Volterra. By his own account, to pull on the handlebars without straining his arms he held between his teeth an inner tube that his mechanic, Faliero Masi, had tied to the bars.
Gaul’s first Giro
Gaul was born on 8 December 1932 in Pfaffenthal, in Luxembourg, and 1956 was the first Giro he won. Two days after the Bondone he rode into Milan in pink, with the same 3′27″ over Magni he had on the evening of the stage. Fantini, second on the Bondone, finished sixth. Of the 105 who had started in Milan, 43 finished. Over the whole race Gaul covered 3,523 km in just over 101 hours and 39 minutes, at an average of about 34.7 km/h; on the Bondone he had ridden at about 26.5. The snow stage cost him eight kilometres an hour, and won him the Giro.
| # | Rider | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Charly Gaul | Faema | 101h39′46″-49″ |
| 2 | Fiorenzo Magni | Nivea | +3′27″ |
| 3 | Agostino Coletto | Fréjus | +6′53″ |
| 4 | Cleto Maule | Torpado | +7′25″ |
| 5 | Aldo Moser | Torpado | +7′30″ |
| 6 | Alessandro Fantini | Atala | +8′46″ |
The nickname he is remembered by, the Angel of the Mountains, was born in 1954 in a report by Pierre About in L’Équipe, although some tie it to the 1958 Tour. In 2026 the Giro classified 151 riders out of 184; on the Bondone, in 1956, about one rider in two made it to the finish.
Sources
- Wikipedia (it), Giro d’Italia 1956: the stage’s route and climbs, rain and snow, -4 degrees at the finish, 86 starters and 41 finishers, times and gaps, the classification before and after, the final classification.
- Wikipedia (en), 1956 Giro d’Italia and Wikipedia (fr), Tour d’Italie 1956: the snowstorm, the three new Dolomite climbs, Gaul in 24th place, 105 starters and 43 finishers in Milan, the final classification.
- Wikipedia (en), Charly Gaul: birth, the nickname tied to the 1958 Tour.
- giroditalia.it, Monte Bondone: the third-to-last stage, the climbs, Fornara’s 16 minutes on Gaul, the retirement ordered by his directeur sportif, half the field out, the fainting and the hour in the hot water, Gaul’s first Giro, the climb from Trento.
- BikeRaceInfo, 1956 Giro d’Italia: the stage times and gaps, the classification before and after, the final classification.
- la Repubblica, Quel Bondone del ’56 (23 May 2006): 87 starters and 44 abandons, -4 degrees, the finish at Vaneze, Fornara’s directeur sportif.
- VeloNews, 50 years later: Remembering Charly Gaul’s great ride (23 May 2006): Gaul 24th at 16 minutes, 43 finishers out of 89 starters, the nickname born in 1954.
- CyclingRevealed, Giro d’Italia 1956: Fantini’s gap, the hour in the hot bath, Magni’s broken collarbone.
- Wikipedia (it), Fiorenzo Magni: the collarbone broken at Volterra, the inner tube between his teeth.
- Wikipedia (it), Giro d’Italia 2026 and the official UCI results in the fagIAnata archive: 184 starters and 151 classified.
Written with the help of Mnemosyne.